There's also a Warcraft Battle Chest Sale until the 23rd, and the 2013 Student Art Contest Winners have been selected--as prizes, they'll get a mentorship with a member of the World of Warcraft art team!

There's also been a confirmed issue with ilvl 502 gems not working on upgraded ilvl 504 helms:

Draztal

Yes, it is intended that you can't put the legendary meta gem on an upgraded 496 helm, but the developers are currently discussing how upgraded items may behave down the road.

No promises or any specifics we can share at this time, though.

Click the cut to read the blue posts!

Warcraft Battle Chest Sale

Blizzard

It’s the perfect time to recruit your friends to join you on your adventures in Azeroth—because right now, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest is just $10. This sale ends April 23, 2013.

MoP's Loot System

Draztal

Just my opinion, since I feel this is an interesting topic to talk about...One of the aspects that makes raiding (and PVE) so exciting is the fact you don't know what will drop and when. It's not the first time I find myself in a position where I'm chasing a particular drop and it just keeps evading me *forever*. It is, indeed, rather frustrating when you consider it from the perspective of the person that wants to finally get that new shield or bracers or whichever.

On the other hand, though, and this is where I think it'd make PVE less attractive is that, if you can plan for certain which upgrades you'll be getting, and when, then, there might not be enough reason to progress past certain bosses. Say, your guild has a hell of a time trying to kill Megaera. Under such a system, you'd still be rewarded with a Tier 15 helm token after some time, despite that one dropping only from the Twin Consorts. And therefore, losing part of the incentive to keep pushing your raid progress to that boss as well as getting rewarded just for showing up on the instance and doing some progress.

Also, the Valor Points items do ensure you'll be able to get items within a reasonable timeframe, of course, you might argue you'd like to get gear faster, but the fact is that you can control to some extent when you'll get something.

Putting those things into perspective, sure, weapons may feel harder to attain since you can't get them through Valor Points, but, if you could carefully plan item by item when and how you'll get each upgrade, wouldn't that remove that excitement of finally getting the item you've been chasing for so long?Oh, come on, don't treat blues (nor anyone else working here for that matter) as "Generic Blizzard Employee #7654". That was my opinion. It is what I think, and there's no reason why you should agree with me, that's not only just fine, it's actually good. Disagreement, if constructive, creates discussions, and good discussions are always profitable one way or the other.

Now talking about weapons... how often has it really occurred to any of you that you've never had a weapon drop for an entire tier? Personally I've never been in that position. Have I gotten my weapon late in a tier? Yes. Have I gotten it soon after a tier had launched? Yes. That's RNG. I'd wager if most people could plan their upgrades, weapons might be on the number one spot (depending on the class, of course).

But above all that, the underlying question isn't just convenience, but rather it branches into two things:-Why do we want to get rid of RNG? Because we can't control drops? Why is that negative if you're having fun playing the game? If someone out there wants to get all the items as soon as possible so he/she can stop playing the game as soon as possible, then maybe the proper question should be... are you having fun in WoW? Because the moment we start thinking on the quickest way to get everything done and then not come back until a new patch has been released might be a sign of needing some time to disconnect from the game.

-Once you control your drops, what's next? removing RNG from quests? from things like which artifact you'll get next on Archaeology or which jewel pattern you'll learn on that next research?

RNG does have a positive aspect of the game. Sure, it makes it unconvenient when we're trying to control everything, but I believe it ultimately falls back to the "having fun" aspect of all this. Would you have fun in a game where you can control everything? For an extended period of time?No RNG there, but hey, I guess there's a reason companies pay you a pre-determined sum of money each month rather than by handing you an random item you may or may not find use for. I like my job a lot and having a random reward system wouldn't make it more fun.

But this is a game, not a job. It should be fun, if it feels like just an obligation... what's the point? I mean, from what some of you are expressing, it sounds like you feel obligated to play and the loot is forcing you to play longer than you'd like. Isn't that an odd sentiment to have?

A table of gear comes out, where you can CHOOSE wether you want the tanking gloves(which you have) or the tanking shoulders (which is whole new and exciting!) Then you don't have a chance of getting a set of fine armor which you already have. I've tried this too many times. It comes up on my bonus roll and i get all excited until i see it's the same damn boot or shoulder that i already have gotten 3 times!

Conclusion: It would be nice to actually choose the armor you want if you should be so lucky to finally get a loot (which is rare these days LFR). Don't hate, this was just a crazy yet awesome (in my opinion) idea that fell into my little mind! ;)

But we don't have just LFR, there're normal and Heroic raids. A player running LFR and Normal/Heroic using such a system could probably pick the perfect gear for himself quite quickly. One thing is frustration with not getting loot on the Raid Finder (which is something that may be alleviated in 5.3) and a different thing to have a system where you can basically cherry pick the gear you want to perfectly cover each slot. It takes a lot of that excitement I mentioned.

Players should get loot for EVERY boss they kill. It's simple as that. You go, you kill, you loot. There can't be nothing else, since the game is not about the lore, story or immersion anymore, but pew pew and lewt. Truth be told.

That's never been the case in the game.

If blizzard wants to change this, they should emphasise on the lore and story. Yes, there will be losses, but when the design revolves around killing LFR Tsulong (with THIS char) 20 ACTUAL times and never getting the bloody trinket he drops, I am sorry but this is just bull!@#$.

But there were other options, right? You could get other trinkets if the one from Tsulong just refused to drop (which in the other hand, you can safely say is bad luck after so many kills).

Nobody wants to take RNG away. And nobody talks about getting everything as fast as possible.We want to see Progress in Raiding. Either in Raid-Progress or in IL/Loot. All in good time is a different thing than "Well you will get that Item without alternative maybe never, thats RNG"

You are dismissing our valid Arguments far to easy!

I'm not dismissing arguments! In fact, if I wanted to dismiss them, I just wouldn't bother posting :)

It's just, we can't simply reduce it to "hey, we want progress in raiding". Sure, I bet that's a cool idea for many, but it has consequences on other aspects of the game, and that's what I find interesting, discussing those things. If we reduced everything to the perspective that makes our arguments valid, we would probably just limit ourselves to post either "hey, this is cool, we'll pass it along and see what the developers say" or "hey, sorry but the developers are not considering this". Is that the kind of interaction you'd like from the blues? I'm genuinely curious.

I vote Dratzal for noob of the day.

He completely missed the point and may as well stood in fire.

My DK friend still has no sha touched weapon and he's using the weapon from Mogu'shan Vaults. I dont have my sha touched weapon either, but at least I have the healing mace from Mogu'shan Vaults upgraded. It's stupid how easy it is to obtain the sha touched gem but getting the weapon simply wont happen.

I have never gotten my weapon from toes.

The drop rate for weapons needs to be increased then people wouldn't be so upset on the matter.

Ah! But he's using a weapon from that tier!

Of course, not the one he wanted, but one from it. You can say it felt getting sha touched weapons was too hard which is a valid argument, but it doesn't make my point any less valid, he did get an upgrade. So perhaps the thing isn't just RNG or RNG not, and it's more about... are the items and the effort required to get to them truly rewarding? Let's say Jin'rokh the Breaker dropped the best weapons of this tier. And only weapons. Would it be as satisfying to finally get them as if they dropped only from Lei Shen?

I'm not sure you understand where I'm trying to get to. I think discussions like this (about loot systems in wow) are indeed interesting, and I'm 100% sure they provide useful feedback to the developers. It doesn't mean they'll necessarily implement anything of what you've mentioned here, but it'll make them have a better perspective of what the community thinks about this and might even give them a few ideas of their own on how to tackle those things they might also perceive as issues.

In short, don't focus too much on if I'm rebating your arguments. That's not the point of my posts, in the end it isn't me who you need to convince of anything and there's no gain in happily sitting down and saying "sure, this is all good!". If I'm asking something it's not to be dismissive, just to give more flesh to the discussion and allow more people to chime in with their thoughts. The more (ideas and perspectives), the merrier, because that's what makes these things so interesting :-)

It's a losing battle because he doesn't understand what the OP is talking about.

Neither do you.

Next time read the post, and not just the title.

I do understand it. That's why I can bring other perspectives to try to enrich the discussion. I actually mentioned that yesterday on my Twitter account, there's little benefit for me to post "hey, this is a cool idea, +1!".

By doing that, I don't contribute anything to the discussion, I don't encourage others to participate and give their points of view and, finally, I'd actually be putting myself in a position where some players would probably just try to use such a post as a reason to lobby for a particular change. I'm not insane. Not yet.

Furthermore I don't believe no one is happy or satisfied with looting the same item 5 times over if you are in need of another item.

Of course no one is (well, enchanters might be :P).

But the thing is, if you get a duplicate item, do you feel it should instead be replaced with another item that is useful for a slot that has to be upgraded yet? I understand the reasoning, sure, but that very same thing is what happens to raiders in normal and Heroic mode. And what usually happens there is that gear is either disenchanted or goes for off-spec to someone.

In any case, I believe there's one concern that many of you share, which is that you feel getting a new weapon is too difficult (at least it seems to be mentioned in this thread way more than everything else) and we'll definitely pass that feedback to the developers.

Student Art Contest Winners

Blizzard

Last year, our University Relations and World of Warcraft teams challenged college and university students to submit an original 3D work of art that fits seamlessly into World of Warcraft. We received a slew of amazing entries, and after much deliberation chose some very deserving winners. You can also see honorable mentions at the contest site!

Comments

Comment by Hakunamatata

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:39 -0500

No sale on MOP, sad:( impressive artwork, though!

Comment by BrightBrown

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:53 -0500

In the current LFR, it's RNG that says IF you'll get a drop or not. THAT doesn't need to change. But there is NO earthly reason for anyone to "win" what they already have. It's like being RNGed twice. I DO kinda like the idea of winning a RNG based drop, then being able to choose which item you get. THIS is "progression." Winning the same thing over and over is only more ways to convince folks to contemplate leaving the game. There is no reason I can think of in any way, shape or form that these duplicates are a good idea. You DID win a drop, which does NOT happen every kill, after all.

Another idea I heard expressed was auto d/e. There's no way to "choose" d/e assuming a chanter in the raid, but so what? Being able to turn that duplicate piece of gear into something useful is a win. 17-25G from vendoring it is a LOSS.

Comment by avnliquid

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:49:41 -0500

personally i feel loot system is not set up to fill a iv been thre killed this boss id like my toon to have some progression on what his gear lvl is. after 7-8 weeks 5 of my toons have 1 item dropped...1...i say one this barring winning same item 6 times..or only thing you win are the 3 vp items you already purchased are. but i find it annoing when 2-3 weeks in see some random guy whinning they didnt get that drop they really wanted.. inspect them they had 10+ items arelady, i look at my toon 0..1...8 weeks later 2 items...or see person win same item they dont need..how hard is it to make auto script detects this player arleady has this equipped...pass loot to next player. see people win sha tocuhed weapon 9 times in row. while took 6 months for some people to repalce thier 463. looking foreward to new rolling system...might make me want to do more dailys...

Comment by tankform

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:26:17 -0500

Something I've thought of that blizzard could do is to give you 5-6 items to choose from every part of the lfr and you can choose 1 out of those 5-6 items eligible for your class (you could choose what spec you wanted gear for, which is gladly coming in 5.3). This would make people motivated to do the LFRs more often and actually be able to get AT LEAST 1 piece per LFR part, it won't be too easy to gear, but it would be a nice push. A bit like a pat on the back saying "thanks for your participation in the LFR", giving you a item you want and might help more people start raiding!

To do this right though Blizzard would need to give this reward at the end of each part. Though you would only be able to do this once every week.This shouldn't be that difficult for blizzard to create and would make most of the players happy (obviously you can't make everyone saticfied, but it's a good start for it.).

Thanks for reading this, I hope most of you guys and girls will agree and some might even forward this to blizzard :)

Comment by Severage

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:33:49 -0500

Wow, Blizzard employees frankly deal with a lot of ship.

Comment by leaponover

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:55:17 -0500

It's pretty important that this blue brought up fun.

Last week I went 0/9 on lfrs bosses, 0/3 on bonus rolls, and 0/2 on world bosses. How on God's green earth is that fun? Is that the first time this has happened? HELL NO! I went 0/29 with my monk once he became lfr ready. So PLEASE blue, don't try to tell us what is fun. I stayed up until 3am before reset just trying to finish that last lfr because I had gotten not one upgrade all week, just to come up empty again. There is nothing fun in that. Nothing at all. I am very close to quitting and this isn't crying over spilled milk. Hey, if I CAN'T down a boss I don't expect to get loot. When I can down 11 bosses, I expect at least 1 upgrade or there is just no reason to do it....

Comment by Mantrhax

on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:15:17 -0500

This is a tipical blizzard's employee answer..telling nothing new...they do what "They" think its better...well i foresee a lot of unsubscription coming soon.The frustation level in wow now is almost unbearable. Keep the arrogance, thinking u guys knows everything, and lets see what the future bring to us.

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